Magnification Interface with Independent Pointer Sizing

ABSTRACT

A computer program for rendering a magnified graphic user interface (GUI) establishes a first magnification level for the graphic user interface and a second magnification level for a pointer. It displays the magnified GUI at the first magnification level and monitors application program interface messaging for a call for a system pointer identifier. It intercepts this call and scales the pointing indicia not to the magnification level of the GUI, but to the second magnification level for the pointer. The pointer is then displayed to an end user of the computer system at a magnification level that is different from the magnification level of the GUI. Thus, the invention provides for independent magnification of the graphic user interface from the mouse cursor or caret.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a nonprovisional of U.S. provisional patentapplication No. 61/222,714 filed Jul. 2, 2009 which is herebyincorporated by reference into this disclosure.

FIELD OF INVENTION

This invention relates to low vision assistive software, and moreparticularly to a magnification application for a graphic user interface(GUI).

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Low vision individuals often require magnification of computer screeninterfaces to discern text and images. Magnification systems may bebuilt into the operating system itself or may comprise feature-rich,third-party products such as those sold under the MAGIC brandmanufactured by Freedom Scientific, Inc., based in St. Petersburg, Fla.

A deficiency in the current state of the art is the over-magnificationof the pointing indicia. Low vision users are often limited in themagnification they can impose because the pointing indicia are magnifiedin step with the entire GUI. Thus, at high magnification levels (i.e.,exceeding 16-fold) pointing indicia become so large they obscure much ofthe GUI itself.

Another deficiency exists in the current state of the art wherein lowvision users, depending on the application and their own preferences,may desire a larger or smaller cursor or caret to enhance productivity.For example, a low vision user might desire a mouse pointer for aspreadsheet application to be magnified to 2-fold while the same mousepointer in a word processing application is easier to use at 4-foldmagnification.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

An embodiment of the present invention includes a method of rendering amagnified GUI including the steps of establishing a first magnificationlevel for the GUI. The GUI includes the desktop and softwareapplications that execute within the operating system. A secondmagnification level is established for pointing indicia. The pointingindicia may be a cursor or a caret. A cursor is the graphical image thatrepresents the mouse and its movements. It can take many shapesincluding, but not limited to, an arrow for pointing, a hand, anhourglass, or an I-shaped text selector. The caret, on the other hand,is the blinking indicia that is used to enter text.

The magnified GUI is displayed at the first magnification level.Application program interface messaging for the operating system ismonitored and calls for a system pointer identifier (such as a systempointer handle) are intercepted. Alternately or in conjunction with APIintercepts, the magnification program may poll the operating system forcurrent mouse pointer information, including but not limited to itsposition and shape. Instead of merely displaying the pointing indicia atthe magnification level of the GUI, the pointing indicia is scaled,instead, to the second magnification level and subsequently displayed.

To load mouse pointers, in a Microsoft Windows environment in which theinvention may be used applications call the LoadCursor API function:

HCURSOR LoadCursor (HINSTANCE hInstance, LPCTSTR LPCTSTR lpCursorName);

If hInstance is NULL, then lpCursorName contains an identifierrepresenting one of the standard system cursors. These values mayinclude:

Value Meaning IDC_APPSTARTING Standard arrow and small hourglassMAKEINTRESOURCE(32650) IDC_ARROW Standard arrow MAKEINTRESOURCE(32512)IDC_CROSS Crosshair MAKEINTRESOURCE(32515) IDC_HAND HandMAKEINTRESOURCE(32649) IDC_HELP Arrow and question markMAKEINTRESOURCE(32651) IDC_IBEAM I-beam MAKEINTRESOURCE(32513) IDC_ICONObsolete for applications marked MAKEINTRESOURCE(32641) version 4.0 orlater. IDC_NO Slashed circle MAKEINTRESOURCE(32648) IDC_SIZE Obsoletefor applications marked MAKEINTRESOURCE(32640) version 4.0 or later. UseIDC_SIZEALL. IDC_SIZEALL Four-pointed arrow pointing north,MAKEINTRESOURCE(32646) south, east, and west IDC_SIZENESW Double-pointedarrow pointing MAKEINTRESOURCE(32643) northeast and southwest IDC_SIZENSDouble-pointed arrow pointing north MAKEINTRESOURCE(32645) and southIDC_SIZENWSE Double-pointed arrow pointing MAKEINTRESOURCE(32642)northwest and southeast IDC_SIZEWE Double-pointed arrow pointing westand MAKEINTRESOURCE(32644) east IDC_UPARROW Vertical arrowMAKEINTRESOURCE(32516) IDC_WAIT Hourglass MAKEINTRESOURCE(32514)

If hInstance is not NULL, then lpCursorName contains either a numeric orstring identifier representing a graphic image contained in theapplication's resources. LoadCursor returns a numeric handle to thecursor that was loaded. The foreground application selects the activecursor by calling the SetCursor function. This function takes one of theHCURSOR handles previously created by LoadCursor. By intercepting bothof these functions, it is possible to keep track of the active cursorbeing used by an application. By intercepting the SetForegroundWindowfunction, it is possible to determine which application is in theforeground and hence, track which application's cursor is activesystem-wide.

An alternative method of obtaining the pointer shape under Windowsincludes the step of intercepting the drvSetPointerShape value betweenoperating system and display device driver. Using drvSetPointerShapevalue is most appropriate for the fifteen (15) predefined (non-obsolete)cursor types available in the MICROSOFT WINDOWS application programminginterface specification.

In an embodiment of the invention, the second magnification level isstatic. The GUI may be scaled to any magnification but the size of thepointing indicia remains the same.

In yet another embodiment of the invention, the second magnificationlevel is preselected according to at least one or more softwareapplications in focus. For example, a mouse cursor may be magnified to4-fold for a word processor application but only magnified 2-fold by aspreadsheet application. The present invention intercepts API messagingto automatically switch second magnification levels based on theapplication in the foreground or in focus.

The second magnification level may be user-modifiable independently ofthe first magnification level. For example, a user may hold down a keycombination while moving a mouse wheel to scale the magnification levelof the GUI without affecting the magnification level of the pointingindicia. Alternatively, a different key combination may invokemagnification only for the pointing indicia. Yet another key combinationmay re-synchronize the GUI and pointing indicia magnification levels.Separate magnifications levels for cursors and carets may also beestablished.

Another embodiment of the invention intelligently applies a convergencevalue to optimize the relative magnification of the GUI and pointingindicia. The embodiment includes the steps of magnifying, insynchronization, both a background GUI and a foreground pointingindicia, establishing a magnification convergence value, responsive to amagnification level of the GUI exceeding the convergence value,decoupling synchronization and displaying the pointing indicia magnifiedat a lesser relative factor than the GUI magnification level, andresponsive to a magnification level of the GUI below or equal to theconvergence value re-coupling synchronization and displaying thepointing indicia magnified at a factor relative to the GUI magnificationlevel.

The synchronization may be achieved by a linear, logarithmic, or stepgraph relationship. The convergence value may be derived from a numberof factors including the magnification level of the pointing indicia.However, an alternate method is to derive the convergence value from aratio of pointing indicia surface area against GUI surface area. Thismay be particularly useful as initial pointer size at 1-foldmagnification of the GUI may be highly variable (i.e., 0.5×, 1.0×, 2.0×,4.0×, etc. . . . ).

An embodiment of the invention may include having separate convergencevalues for cursors and carets. Steps to this embodiment includeproviding a first convergence value for a cursor and a secondconvergence value for a caret, magnifying the cursor in accordance withthe first convergence value, and magnifying the caret in accordance withthe second convergence value.

A user-selectable pointing indicia magnification adjustment may beprovided to decouple the synchronization whereby the pointing indicia ismagnified independently of the magnification level of the GUI backgroundand the independently magnified pointing indicia is displayed to theuser. The user-selectable pointing indicia magnification adjustment mayinclude voice commands, keystrokes, mouse events, or the like.

In yet another embodiment of the invention, a user may wish tooccasionally override the automatic convergence feature of theinvention. Responsive to a first user-initiated event or adjustment,synchronization is decoupled to display the pointing indicia to auser-selectable level magnification level. Responsive to a seconduser-initiated event, synchronization is re-coupled to display thepointing indicia according to the convergence value.

In yet another embodiment of the invention, erratic pointer movementfollowing a period of pointer inactivity temporarily scales the pointingindicia from a first to a second magnification level allowing the userto identify the location of the pointing indicia. The pointing indiciais then returned to the first magnification level. Erratic pointermovements are detected by monitoring mouse events for speed anddirection of the pointer.

An embodiment of the invention may include one or more computer-readablemedia having computer-executable instructions for performing a method ofrunning a software program on a computer, the computer operating underan operating system, the method including issuing instructions from thesoftware program which include establishing a first magnification levelfor the GUI, establishing a second magnification level for a pointingindicia, displaying the magnified GUI at the first magnification level,receiving pointer-related information either by monitoring applicationprogram interface messaging, polling for current information, or acombination of both, scaling the pointing indicia to the secondmagnification level and displaying the pointing indicia.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a fuller understanding of the invention, reference should be made tothe following detailed description, taken in connection with theaccompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a conceptual view of a monitor displaying a GUI and a mousecursor at 1-fold magnification.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual view of a monitor displaying a GUI and a mousecursor at 2-fold magnification.

FIG. 3 is a conceptual view of a monitor displaying a GUI and a mousecursor at 4-fold magnification.

FIG. 4 is a conceptual view of a monitor displaying a GUI and a mousecursor at 8-fold magnification.

FIG. 5 is a conceptual view of a monitor displaying a GUI and a mousecursor at 16-fold magnification.

FIG. 6 is a conceptual view of a monitor displaying a GUI and a mousecursor at 32-fold magnification.

FIG. 7 is a conceptual view of a monitor displaying a GUI at 32-foldmagnification and a mouse cursor at 16-fold magnification.

FIG. 8 is a line graph showing synchronization of pointer indicia andGUI at a 1-to-1 relationship until pointer indicia reaches a 16-foldmagnification ceiling.

FIG. 9 is a line graph showing pointer indicia remaining staticallyenhanced at 4-fold magnification regardless of the magnification levelof the GUI.

FIG. 10 is a line graph showing pointer indicia synchronized with GUImagnification at a 1-to-1 ratio until GUI reaches an 8-foldmagnification level.

FIG. 11 is a line graph showing pointer indicia synchronized with GUImagnification at a 1-to-2 ratio until pointer indicia reaches a 4-foldmagnification ceiling.

FIG. 12 is a line graph showing mouse cursor linearly reaching a 4-foldmagnification ceiling while caret continues on a 1-to-1 magnificationsynchronization with GUI.

FIG. 13 is a line graph showing cursor and caret magnification ceilingsat various levels of GUI magnification.

FIG. 14 is a line graph showing convergence of pointer size at a 16-foldGUI magnification wherein the four pointers started at differentmagnification levels.

FIG. 15 is a conceptual sequence of displays showing circular pointermovement following a period of pointer inactivity to temporarily magnifypointer.

FIG. 16 is a conceptual sequence of displays showing zigzag pointermovement following a period of pointer inactivity to temporarily magnifypointer.

FIG. 17 is a conceptual sequence of displays showing a lesser caretmagnification level compared with a greater cursor magnification level.

FIG. 18 is a diagrammatic view of an embodiment of the invention whereinthe GUI magnification level and the pointer magnification level aremanually set.

FIG. 19 is a diagrammatic view of an embodiment of the invention whereinwherein the pointer magnification level is set by a number of possibleoptions, some dynamic and some static.

FIG. 20 is a diagrammatic view of an embodiment of the invention whereininstead of monitoring API messaging, the operating system is polled forthe current pointer identifier.

FIGS. 21-26 are conceptual graphic user interface dialog boxes showing anumber of embodiments of end-user adjustment of the independent pointersizing.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

FIGS. 1-7 show GUI 10 displaying text 20, button control 30, mousecursor 40 and GUI magnification level 50. At 1-fold GUI magnification inFIG. 1, mouse cursor 40 is shown at 1× magnification. However, undervarious embodiments of the invention, mouse cursor 40 could be reducedto lower magnifications (i.e., 0.5×) or increased to highermagnifications (i.e., 4×) while GUI 10 is still at 1-fold magnification.

To illustrate an advantage of the present invention, FIGS. 1-6 show a1-to-1 magnification level between GUI 10 and mouse cursor 40 as wouldbe seen in the current state of the art. In FIG. 2, GUI 10 is magnified2-fold and mouse cursor 40 is similarly magnified to 2× along withobjects in GUI 10 such as text 20 and button control 30. In FIG. 3, GUI10 is magnified 4-fold and mouse cursor 40 is also magnified to 4×. At4-fold magnification, button control 30 and text 20 can no longer beentirely displayed within the magnified desktop area of GUI 10. In FIG.4, GUI 10 is magnified 8-fold and mouse cursor 40 is also magnified to8×. In FIG. 5, GUI 10 is magnified 16-fold and mouse cursor 40 is alsomagnified to 16×. In FIG. 6, GUI 10 is magnified 32-fold and mousecursor 40 is also magnified to 32×. At this level of magnification,mouse cursor 40 provides questionable utility for the low vision user.In most positions, mouse cursor 40 itself cannot be entirely displayedon GUI 10 desktop and obscures other objects on the desktop. Thus, whenmouse cursor 40 and GUI 10 are always magnified in 1-to-1synchronization, less than desirable results may occur. However, in FIG.7, GUI 10 is magnified 32-fold but mouse cursor 40 is only magnified to16×. At 16× magnification, mouse cursor 40 maintains a higher level ofutility to the user while the user may still have GUI 10 magnified to avery high level. Bifurcating the relative magnification of the pointingindicia (mouse cursor 40) and GUI 10 enables low vision users havemeaningful tools to both comprehend the content of GUI 10 at variousmagnification levels as well as control it via mouse cursor 40.

FIGS. 8-14 show line charts that enumerate exemplary embodiments of theinvention. These figures illustrate synchronization of pointing indiciaand GUI and the decoupling and re-coupling of the synchronizationdepending on the magnification level of the GUI.

In FIG. 8, GUI magnification increases from 1-fold to 36-fold and above.Pointer indicia is magnified in-step at a 1-to-1 relationship until GUImagnification increases beyond 16-fold. At that point, pointer indiciareaches its ceiling value of 16× and no longer is magnified. Hence, theprior synchronization between GUI and pointer indicia magnification isdecoupled. However, as GUI magnification drops back to 16-fold, pointerindicia and GUI synchronization is re-coupled to a 1-to-1 relationship.This relationship correlates with the illustrations in FIGS. 1-5, and 7.

An alternative embodiment of the invention is shown in FIG. 9 whereinregardless of GUI magnification, pointer indicia is always magnified at4×. This is static magnification of the pointer indicia.

In FIG. 10, pointer indicia and GUI magnification are synchronized in a1-to-1 relationship up to a 4-fold magnification. After 4-foldmagnification, pointer indicia and GUI utilize a second synchronizationscheme wherein pointer indicia is magnified in a 1-to-2 relationshipwith GUI. For example, when GUI is magnified 8-fold, pointer indicia ismagnified to 4×. When GUI is magnified to 16-fold, pointer indicia ismagnified to 8×. However, beyond 16-fold GUI magnification, pointerindicia remains at 8× magnification (its ceiling value).

In FIG. 11, pointer indicia is magnified at 0.5× while GUI is at 1-foldmagnification. Synchronization in this example is at a 2-to-1relationship between GUI and pointer indicia. When GUI is at 2-foldmagnification, pointer indicia is at 1×. When GUI is at 4-foldmagnification, pointer indicia is at 2×. When GUI is at 8-foldmagnification, pointer indicia is at 4×. At GUI magnification levelsbeyond 8-fold, synchronization is decoupled and pointer indicia remainsat its ceiling value of 4×.

In FIG. 12, two synchronization schemes are provided: (1) a first for amouse cursor (solid line); and (2) a second for a caret. Caretmagnification remains indefinitely synchronized with GUI magnification.This might be preferable when editing highly enlarged text. However, themouse cursor is synchronized on a reduced magnification relationshipwith respect to GUI until its ceiling value is reached at 16-fold GUImagnification. It should be noted that a floor value may also be imposedagainst pointing indicia whereby magnification level of the pointingindicia is not reduced even though GUI magnification level is lowered.

In FIG. 13, distinct synchronization schemes for mouse cursor (▪) versuscaret (▴) are shown against GUI magnification (♦). Mouse cursor (▪) hitsa ceiling at 4-fold magnification while caret (♦) hits a ceiling at16-fold GUI magnification.

FIG. 14 illustrates a convergence graph showing four (4) differentpointer sizes denoted as small (♦), normal (▪), large (▴) and huge (x).Small pointer size value is 0.5×. Normal pointer size value is 1.0×.Large pointer size value is 2.0×. Huge pointer size value is 4.0×. At a1-fold magnification of the GUI, small, normal, large and huge pointersizes cover an area of the GUI of ˜0%, 3%, 5% and 10% respectively. Asmagnification of the GUI is increased, the variation in pointer sizeswould produce drastically different user experiences. However, under anembodiment of the present invention, these pointer sizes are normalized(hit their ceiling value) at a 16-fold GUI magnification. As the GUI ismagnified from 1-fold to 16-fold, small pointer size is increasedsubstantially more relative to huge pointer size.

Pointing indicia magnification levels according to the invention may beoverridden by user events. For example, holding down one or more keys onthe keyboard and scrolling a mouse wheel may zoom in and out the mousecursor while keeping the magnification level of the GUI constant.Holding down an alternate set of keys and scrolling the mouse wheel mayzoom in and out the GUI while keeping the mouse cursor at the samemagnification. Yet another keystroke or keystroke combination maydecouple or re-couple the pointing indicia and GUI magnificationsynchronization.

In yet another embodiment of the invention, erratic mouse movementsfollowing a period of mouse inactivity act to temporarily magnify themouse cursor so that it can be easily located by the low vision user.Erratic movement may include, but are not limited to, rapid side-to-sidemovement and circular movement. In FIG. 15, mouse cursor 60 displayed onGUI 10 is moved in circular motion 70 after a period of mouseinactivity. Magnification is applied to display enlarged mouse cursor 80for a three-second interval before magnification is released to againdisplay mouse cursor 60 at its previous magnification level.

In FIG. 16, mouse cursor 60 displayed on GUI 10 is moved in a zigzagmotion 90 after a period of mouse inactivity. Magnification is appliedto display enlarged mouse cursor 80 for a three-second interval beforemagnification is released to again display mouse cursor 60 at itsprevious magnification level.

In FIG. 17, different synchronization schemes for caret 100 and mousecursor 110 are shown. GUI 10 is 2-fold magnified. Cursor 100 is likewisemagnified at 2× while mouse cursor is magnified at 4×.

FIG. 18 illustrates the steps to an embodiment of the inventionincluding establishing a first GUI magnification level 120, establishinga second magnification level for a pointing indicia 130, displaying 140the GUI at the first magnification level, monitoring API messaging 150,intercepting a call for a system pointer identifier 160, scaling 170 thepointing indicia to second magnification level 130 and displaying thepointing indicia 180. First GUI magnification level 120 occurs either byuser-initiated input or by initialization at the operating system levelor by a separate magnification application such as MAGIC. First GUImagnification level 120 may also be set responsive to a change inapplication focus (i.e., from a spreadsheet application to a wordprocessing application).

A monitoring application or worker thread notifies a mouse handlingsubsystem of the screen magnification change. The pointer subsystem maycalculate the mouse cursor magnification based on the following metricsand processes: (A) Compute the base mouse cursor size, relative tounmagnified system metrics. For example, the user selects 150% basemouse cursor scale. The base size of the mouse cursor would be 1.50×32pixels=48×48 pixels in size. (B) Compute the convergence point size. Inthe case of a 1024×768 display size, and assuming a maximum convergencescale of 33% of minor dimension (768 pixels), then the maximum mousesize is 768/3=256 pixels. The convergence magnification is the screenmagnification level at which the mouse cursor stops scaling. In thisexample, the default value of 16× magnification is presumed. That meansthat at 16× magnification, and for any magnification level beyond 16×,the mouse cursor will be contained within a 256×256 pixel bounding box.(C) Linearly interpolate the per-magnification level pixel modifier—theamount that the mouse cursor bounding box grows for each magnificationlevel between 1× (unmagnified) and 16× (convergence magnification). Thegeneral formula is (Max size−computed base size)/(number ofmagnification levels beyond 1×). In the previous example it is(256−48)/15, or 13.866 pixels. So for every magnification level beyond1×, an additional 14 pixels are added to each dimension of the mousecursor bounding box. (D) Add a multiple of the magnification level pixelmodifier and the magnification level beyond 1× to the computed basemouse metric (48×48). If in this example the GUI is set to 5×magnification, then the mouse cursor would occupy the following boundingbox: 48+(4×13.866)=approximately 103 pixels—which is quite differentfrom and more usable than the 160×160 pixels it would have occupied hadthe mouse cursor scaling been bounded 1:1 to that of the desktop(32×5=160).

For any mouse event from the system (intercepted by the magnificationdisplay driver), or for any desktop rendering event that could involvethe mouse cursor, the magnification engine tells the pointer subsystemto draw itself. The pointer subsystem queries the system for the currentmouse cursor (by handle or other identifier). The pointer subsystemtries to find a cached, vector-sourced substitute. If it finds one itsets it to be the current, internal mouse cursor. If it fails to findone it copies, edge-smoothes, and caches a scaled version of the mousecursor that is currently the active one, and associates it (by handle orother identifier) for future use in a separate lookup table. It setsthis newly created and cached raster-sourced image as the current,internal mouse cursor.

The pointer subsystem renders the current, internal mouse cursor to anoff-screen image, at a preselected location. That image is ultimatelyrendered by the magnification subsystem onto the display driver surface.

When a user purposely manipulates the mouse cursor scale independentlyfrom the screen magnification, the user can manipulate: (1) the mousecursor base scale, which would have the result of increasing the finalmouse cursor size according to some inverse of the magnification level,between 1× and the convergence magnification. Once the user is at theconvergence level, using this method, the user could only decrease themouse cursor size. The magnitude of the mouse cursor's size change at 1×is significantly more that it would be at 14×. This relationship isshown in FIG. 14. (2) A multiple, which may be derived from either afixed, linear, logarithmic, or other mechanism, that is based on mousecursor and/or desktop magnification—all which may or may not be allowedto exceed the convergence maximum size.

Cursors and carets may be independently configured. The monitoringapplication intercepts or polls the operating system for the type ofpointer deployed (i.e., cursor or caret) and the pointer subsystemrenders cursor according to a cursor configuration or the caretaccording to a caret configuration. The configuration for cursor andcarets may be controlled by the magnification engine automaticallyand/or set by the user. The magnification engine includes one or moredisplay dialog boxes for individually adjusting cursor and caretsettings (along with other magnification preferences). These settingsare stored in user configuration files such as a registration, INI file,XML file or the like for later retrieval and use.

An alternative embodiment of the invention is shown in FIG. 19, thesteps include establishing a first GUI magnification level 120,establishing a second magnification level for pointing indicia 130.Second magnification level 130 is selected from magnification schemearray 190 including static pointer magnification 200, pointermagnification ceiling 210, pointer magnification floor 220, and directuser adjustment 230. Magnification scheme array 190 comprises acollection of object properties and settings for the various possiblemagnification possibilities. The object properties are typically storedon magnetic mediums such as a local hard drive for later recall. Theobject properties may be saved in various formats, including, but notlimited to, system registration, INI, XML, database and the like. Theuser may switch from one magnification scheme to another responsive toconditions such as an application changing focus. The user may alsoswitch schemes based on user input such as a keystroke or mouse event.Second magnification level 130 may also be calculated 240 based on thesurface area of the intercepted system pointer 160 that would cover GUI.For example, second magnification level for a pointing indicia 130 maybe calculated so that the pointing indicia overlays twenty (20%) percentof the entire GUI surface area of the display. For example, a desktopthat is 680×480 pixels has an area of 307,200 square pixels. A pointermagnified to utilize 61,440 pixels would constitute twenty percent ofthe total desktop area and thus be considered a “ceiling value” to thepointer size. In yet another embodiment of the invention, theconvergence point is calculated based on a percentage of screen areaaccording to the minor screen dimension. By using the minor screendimension, the convergence value achieves a reasonable behavior whenperforming in largely disproportionate screens. For example, a monitorthat displays a native resolution of 1360×768 pixels yields a majordimension almost 2× that of the minor. In conditions like these, it'spreferable to use the minor dimension since that ensures that theconvergence value will never exceed any dimension of the display, unlessexplicitly requested by the user. In the above example, a convergencevalue of 60%, based on the major dimension, would in fact be 816vertical pixels and exceed the whole of the minor screen dimension.

FIG. 20 illustrates yet another alternative embodiment of the invention.Under certain situations intercepting the system pointer identificationby monitoring API messaging may not be possible or not preferred. Inthose cases, the operating system and/or application itself is polled250 for the current pointer identification value.

FIG. 21 illustrates a dialog box displayed for a low-vision end userseeking to adjust the settings of the pointer ceiling. A moveable slideron the left side of the dialog box moves between 32× at the top and 4×on the bottom. These magnification factors are arbitrary for thisexample and may vary linearly, by scale and logarithmically. A pointerpreview window in the middle of the dialog box illustrates how large thepointer will appear as the moveable slider is adjusted. A defaultsettings checkbox at the lower left of the dialog box allows an end userto return to the preselected settings established by the softwaredeveloper. On the right side of the dialog box, a listbox is providedhaving three rows: (1) Select; (2) Busy; and (3) Text. These rowdescriptions correspond to the type of pointer that is currently beingadjusted. In the FIG. 21 example, the “Select” row is active therebyshowing the “Select” type pointer in the preview window. Three buttoncomponents are provided at the lower right corner of the dialog box: (1)Apply; (2) OK; and (3) Cancel which fire events to apply the settingimmediately, apply the setting and close the dialog box, or not applythe setting and close the dialog box respectively.

FIG. 22 illustrates the same dialog box as FIG. 21 but in a differentstate. Namely, the Pointer Type in the list box has been changed to“Busy” which then causes an hourglass pointer preview to be shown. Inthis case, as was the case in FIG. 21, the end user selected a pointerceiling value of 16×. Turning to FIG. 23, the dialog box has now beenchanged to a “Text” pointer type which typically is invoked when themouse cursor is placed over editable or selectable text such as in aword processing application or over text in a website page. In this casethe end user decided to adjust the pointer ceiling value to 6×.

In FIG. 24, the end user sets a pointer floor value which is thesmallest the pointer will appear at any magnification level. The pointerfloor value in this example is 4× for the “Select” pointer type.

In FIG. 25, convergence values are set for a plurality of differentpointers and a plurality of different software applications. Forexample, when a caret is shown in a Microsoft Word software applicationwhen the GUI is at 8× magnification the caret is also magnified to 8×.However, when the GUI magnification is increased in 16× or 32×, thecaret shown in Microsoft Word remains at 8× magnification. Themagnification of a cursor appearing in Microsoft Word is synchronizedwith the magnification of the GUI until the GUI magnification exceeds4×. At that point, the cursor stays at 4× magnification while the GUIcan continue to increase in magnification. Finally, a cursor appearingin Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 is magnified at the same level as theGUI until the GUI exceeds 16× magnification. Therefore, it can be seenthat when the GUI is at 32× magnification the cursors appearing inVisual Studio 2010 remain at 16×. Underneath the listbox showing thesevarious settings a button is provided to add new settings that may varybased on the software application, by specific dialog boxes invoked bythe operating system API, by the type of pointer, by the pointer setcurrently used, and the like.

FIG. 26 shows a dialog box interface for saving a user-defined pointerscheme. In this example, an option exists to set a static pointermagnification level. A text box is provided linked to a spinner mayincrement or decrement the magnification integer value in the text box.This may be also be stepped so instead of incrementing by values of 1 itmay increment in magnification steps (i.e., from 1×, 2×, 4×, 8×, 16×,and so on). The end user in this case may not want to have a staticpointer magnification value wherein regardless of the GUI magnificationlevel the pointer magnification stays the same. Therefore, there is acheckbox underneath the static pointer magnification value setting toenable (if checked) or disable (if unchecked) this feature. In thisexample, the end user decided to set a pointer magnification floor of 4×and a pointer magnification ceiling of 16×. Underneath the floor andceiling values were checkboxes to enable these features (floor andceiling) independently. A list box is provided to select one or moresoftware applications to apply this pointer sizing scheme to. Fourapplications are listed: (1) Adobe Acrobat; (2) Microsoft OfficeProfessional Plus 2010; (3) Microsoft Project Professional 2010; and (3)Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2010. The end user selected onlyMicrosoft Office Professional Plus 2010 and Microsoft ProjectProfessional 2010 to apply this scheme to. Finally, the end user isprovided a text box in which to name the scheme. The string“MySizingScheme” is entered into the text box. This scheme may be savedin any number of formats available under the current state of the artfor storing user settings. These formats may include, but are notlimited to, INI files, XML files, registry keys, database fields orproprietary file formats as preferred by the developer.

It should be noted that in addition to a method, an embodiment of theinvention may include one or more computer-readable media havingcomputer-executable instructions for performing a method of running asoftware program on a computer, the computer operating under anoperating system. In such an embodiment, the method may include, forexample, issuing instructions from the software program which includeestablishing a first magnification level for the GUI, establishing asecond magnification level for a pointing indicia, displaying themagnified GUI at the first magnification level, monitoring applicationprogram interface messaging, intercepting a call for a system pointeridentifier, scaling the pointing indicia to the second magnificationlevel and displaying the pointing indicia. In other embodiments, variousother aspects of the methods described above may be included on thecomputer-readable media.

It will be seen that the advantages set forth above, and those madeapparent from the foregoing description, are efficiently attained andsince certain changes may be made in the above construction withoutdeparting from the scope of the invention, it is intended that allmatters contained in the foregoing description or shown in theaccompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in alimiting sense.

1. One or more computer-readable media having computer-executableinstructions for performing a method by running a software program on acomputer, the computer operating under an operating system, the methodincluding issuing instructions from the software program comprising:setting a static magnification level for a pointing indicia that isdisplayed on a graphic user interface controlled by the operatingsystem; displaying the graphic user interface at a magnification leveldifferent from the static magnification level set for the pointingindicia; identifying a current system pointer identifier; scaling ormaintaining the pointing indicia size to correspond to the staticmagnification level set for the pointing indicia; and displaying thepointing indicia at the static magnification level wherein the pointingindicia remains at the same size regardless of the magnification of thegraphic user interface.
 2. The media of claim 1 wherein the pointingindicia is selected from the group consisting of cursors and carets andwherein the media further comprises instructions to establish separatestatic magnifications levels for cursors and carets.
 3. One or morecomputer-readable media having computer-executable instructions forperforming a method by running a software program on a computer, thecomputer operating under an operating system, the method includingissuing instructions from the software program comprising: establishinga plurality of application-specific magnification levels for pointingindicia that are displayed on a graphic user interface controlled by theoperating system; associating each application-specific magnificationlevel with at least one or more software applications that execute onthe operating system; magnifying the graphic user interface generated bythe operating system to a user-specified magnification level; monitoringwhich software application is in focus on the graphic user interface;intercepting a call for a current system pointer identifier to bedisplayed within the current software application that is in focus; andscaling the pointing indicia to the associated application-specificmagnification level according to the software application that iscurrently in focus.
 4. The media of claim 3 wherein the pointing indiciais selected from the group consisting of cursors and carets and whereinthe media further comprises instructions to establish separateapplication-specific magnifications levels for cursors and carets. 5.The media of claim 3 wherein the plurality of application-specificmagnification levels are static wherein the pointing indicia is scaledto constant size irrespective of the magnification of the graphic userinterface.
 6. The media of claim 3 wherein the plurality ofapplication-specific magnification levels are relative to the graphicuser interface magnification level wherein the pointing indicia isscaled to size relative to the magnification of the graphic userinterface, the scaling selected from the group consisting of linearscaling, stepped scaling and logarithmic scaling.
 7. One or morecomputer-readable media having computer-executable instructions forperforming a method by running a software program on a computer, thecomputer operating under an operating system, the method includingissuing instructions from the software program comprising: establishingan initial magnification level for a graphic user interface and apointing indicia whereby the graphic user interface and pointing indiciaare magnified and reduced in synchronization; establishing amagnification convergence value wherein synchronization between thegraphic user interface and the pointing indicia are maintained formagnification levels equal or less to the magnification convergencevalue; responsive to a magnification level of the graphic user interfaceexceeding the convergence value, decoupling synchronization andmaintaining the magnification level of the pointing indicia at themagnification convergence value irrespective of continued magnificationof the graphic user interface; and responsive to a magnification levelof the graphic user interface adjusted below or equal to the convergencevalue re-coupling synchronization and magnifying the pointing indicia ata factor relative to the graphic user interface magnification level. 8.The media of claim 7 wherein the synchronization is linear.
 9. The mediaof claim 7 wherein the synchronization is logarithmic.
 10. The media ofclaim 7 wherein the synchronization is established via stepped values.11. The media of claim 7 wherein the convergence value is derived from aratio of pointing indicia surface area against graphic user interfacesurface area.
 12. The media of claim 7 further comprising instructionsto perform the steps of: providing a first convergence value for acursor and a second convergence value for a caret; magnifying the cursorin accordance with the first convergence value; and magnifying the caretin accordance with the second convergence value.
 13. The media of claim7 further comprising the steps of: providing a user-selectable pointingindicia magnification adjustment to decouple the synchronization wherebythe pointing indicia is magnified independently of the magnificationlevel of the graphic user interface background; and displaying theindependently magnified pointing indicia.
 14. The method of claim 7further comprising the steps of: detecting the resolution of the minoraxis of the graphic user interface as displayed to an end user;establishing a convergence scale; and dividing the resolution of theminor axis by the convergence scale to compute magnification convergencevalue.
 15. One or more computer-readable media havingcomputer-executable instructions for performing a method by running asoftware program on a computer, the computer operating under anoperating system, the method including issuing instructions from thesoftware program comprising: magnifying in synchronization both agraphic user interface and a pointing indicia; establishing amagnification convergence value; responsive to a magnification level ofthe graphic user interface exceeding the convergence value, decouplingsynchronization and displaying the pointing indicia magnified at alesser relative factor than the graphic user interface magnificationlevel; responsive to a magnification level of the graphic user interfacebelow or equal to the convergence value re-coupling synchronization anddisplaying the pointing indicia magnified at a factor relative to thegraphic user interface magnification level; responsive to a firstuser-initiated event, decoupling synchronization to display the pointingindicia to a user-selectable level magnification level; and responsiveto a second user-initiated event, re-coupling synchronization to displaythe pointing indicia according to the convergence value.
 16. One or morecomputer-readable media having computer-executable instructions forperforming a method by running a software program on a computer, thecomputer operating under an operating system, the method includingissuing instructions from the software program comprising: establishinga first magnification level for the graphic user interface; displayingthe magnified graphic user interface at the first magnification level;detecting erratic pointer activity subsequent to a period of pointerinactivity; temporarily scaling the pointing indicia to a secondmagnification level; displaying the pointing indicia; and returning thepointing indicia to the first magnification level for display.
 17. Oneor more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructionsfor performing a method by running a software program on a computer, thecomputer operating under an operating system, the method includingissuing instructions from the software program comprising: magnifying insynchronization both a graphic user interface and a pointing indicia;establishing a pointing indicia floor value for magnification; andresponsive to a modification of a current magnification level of thegraphic user interface at or below the floor value, decouplingsynchronization and displaying the pointing indicia at the floor valueuntil the magnification level of the graphic user interface increasesabove the floor valve whereby synchronization is re-coupled.
 18. Themedia of claim 17 further comprising the steps of: detecting theresolution of the minor axis of the graphic user interface as displayedto an end user; establishing a floor value scale; and dividing theresolution of the minor axis by the floor value scale to compute thepointing indicia floor value.
 19. A method of magnifying a graphic userinterface and a pointing indicia on an operating system executed by acomputer processor, the method comprising: magnifying in synchronizationboth the graphic user interface and the pointing indicia; establishing apointing indicia ceiling value for magnification; and responsive to amodification of a current magnification level of the graphic userinterface exceeding the ceiling value, decoupling synchronization anddisplaying the pointing indicia at the ceiling value unless themagnification level of the graphic user interface falls below theceiling value whereby synchronization is re-coupled.
 20. The method ofclaim 19 further comprising the steps of: detecting the resolution ofthe minor axis of the graphic user interface as displayed to an enduser; establishing a ceiling value scale; and dividing the resolution ofthe minor axis by the ceiling value scale to compute the pointingindicia ceiling value.
 21. A method of magnifying a graphic userinterface and a pointing indicia on an operating system executed by acomputer processor, the method comprising: magnifying in synchronizationboth the graphic user interface and the pointing indicia; establishing apointing indicia floor value for magnification; and responsive to amodification of a current magnification level of the graphic userinterface at or below the floor value, decoupling synchronization anddisplaying the pointing indicia at the floor value until themagnification level of the graphic user interface increases above thefloor valve whereby synchronization is re-coupled.
 22. The method ofclaim 21 further comprising the steps of: detecting the resolution ofthe minor axis of the graphic user interface as displayed to an enduser; establishing a floor value scale; and dividing the resolution ofthe minor axis by the floor value scale to compute the pointing indiciafloor value.